Chapter 6: Short Stories in the Hebrew Bible

In this chapter, it describes a way to effectively understand a passage in the Bible, but it could be for any book if it works for the individual.  I know that I have trouble trying to depict what a story says sometimes.  It could be confusing or something might not resonate with you at first.  Cosby tells us to enjoy the story in its entirety and to feel out the passage.  Then as we go back and and try to analyze the text, the first thing we need to do is break the story into events.  Identify key parts and put titles for them so you can be organized.  Next, get a visual so you can kind of see what is going on and that might help students a lot.  Then, assess the main character and jot down things that you notice about him/her.  Next, speculate on the story’s purpose.  Why is the author doing what he or she is doing.  Finally, consider the historical context to help you figure out the behavioral characteristics.  I know that this is for the Bible and Cosby put this in here specially for the analyzation of the Bible, but I really believe that this could be used for other subjects.  I think that if I used this method in reading English or history, I would understand it a lot better and not have to reread it all over.